


Long Deserved Reward

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Series: A Life Together [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 13:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Fourth Doctor finally comes home to Sarah.





	Long Deserved Reward

 Sarah Jane bid Clyde a good afternoon as the young man left her house, a muffin half in his mouth. She was looking forward to a few hours typing up an article for a magazine, and prepared a cup of tea.

 She had just poured the water into her mug and turned off the kettle when she heard a certain familiar sound coming from the attic. A loud grinding sound.

 Sarah left her tea half-made on the kitchen counter and hurried up the stairs. She arrived in the attic just as the Tardis finished materializing. “Doctor?” she called out, wondering which one it would be this time. Would it be the very young-looking one she had met at his “funeral” or a new one?

 Sarah was certainly not expecting the Doctor that stepped out of the police box. He looked older, his curls were starting to lighten from the dark brown colour, and his face was thinner, a feature emphasized by his too-big maroon-coloured coat. Still, this was obviously her Doctor, the one she had spent the most time with, the one she had fallen in love with, the one who had left her in Aberdeen…

 Sarah could only stare at him, and he stared back.

 “Hello, Sarah,” he greeted, his deep and rich voice one Sarah had been longing to hear for so long.

 “It’s… it’s you,” Sarah whispered.

 “Yes… yes, it is,” the Doctor said with a smile.

 Sarah took two steps forward, still in shock. “No, it’s you you. The one I…” All her emotions burst through and she rushed at him, throwing herself into his arms.

 The Doctor caught her easily, and spun around once with her momentum. He closed his eyes at the muffled whisper of his name at his ear and buried his nose into the side of her neck. “Sarah…” he whispered back.

 Eventually, they let go, and Sarah slid down to her feet. She kept her hands on his forearms, fearing that if she let go, he would disappear. She looked him up and down a few times. “You’re… you look… But so do I, so…”

 “You are just as beautiful as the day we met,” the Doctor assured.

 Sarah smiled a little self-consciously. She shifted the attention back to him. “I don’t know about all the red.” She felt the material of the long red scarf over his chest.

 The Doctor placed his hand over hers on his chest to keep it there. “I’ve missed you. I never… I never intended…” he cleared his throat.

 “’I’ve missed you’ is an understatement.”

 “How long has it been, for you? Since we parted?”

 “Let’s see… 1976… it’s 2013.”

 “That long?” The Doctor’s face fell.

 “I’ve met future versions of you, but… well, it wasn’t this you.”

 “I’m sorry. It was never my intention to leave you in South Croydon and never come back for you. So much happened that I had no control over, and-“

 Sarah’s hand tightened on the lapel of the maroon coat before she moved in and pulled him down for a kiss. The Doctor was caught off-guard, but recovered quickly, slipping into the familiar movement. His arm snaked around her back to pull her in closer.

 It wasn’t a deep kiss, more tentative and soft than anything. Reacquainting themselves with each other. 

Sarah let out a sigh as their lips parted, and giggled at the nudge of his nose against hers. She pulled back slightly, and said, “By the way, it wasn’t Croydon. It wasn’t even anywhere in London.”

 The Doctor’s brows furrowed in confusion.

 “Where you dropped me off. It was Aberdeen.”

 “Aberdeen?”

 “Scotland.”

 The Timelord’s mouth opened, then closed. He cleared his throat. “Of all the times… must’ve been the extreme cold on Kast-“

 Sarah yanked him into another kiss before he could let out another apology. This one was more heated, with one hand sliding up into the curls above the man’s ear. The Doctor responded in kind, his hand going up to cradle the back of her head.

 As their mouths parted again, they pressed their foreheads together. Sarah teased, “I’ve forgiven you for that mistake.”

 “I didn’t want to leave you,” the Doctor stated.

 “I know.” Sarah’s hands caressed the sides of the Timelord’s neck. She nervously asked, “Are you going to leave again?”

 The Doctor closed his eyes and shook his head. His hands settled on her waist. “Sarah, say the word, and I won’t leave you again.”

 “You mean that?” Sarah bit her lip.

 “I couldn’t do it again, not after I’ve finally found my way back to you after all this time.”

 Tears stung in Sarah’s eyes. “Doctor… don’t leave,” her voice cracked.

 The Doctor took one of the woman’s hands between both of his and raised it to his mouth to kiss it. It was a silent promise.

 A voice from the door startled them both. “Uh… hello.”

 Sarah wiped at her eyes. “I thought you’d gone.”

 Clyde sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “Left my mobile up here.” He raised his eyebrows at the Tardis. “Doctor?” At the nod from the Timelord, he teased, “Certainly older than last we met.”

 Sarah rolled her eyes, and explained to the Doctor, “The two future yous he met looked noticeably younger.”

 The Doctor took it in stride and said to Clyde, “I look forward to meeting you, then.”

 “Oh, you’re a past Doctor, then?” Then he remembered what he had walked in on, and seemed to recognize the face. “The one Sarah Jane was with… Sorry to interrupt, um…” he turned back to the door to leave.

 “Clyde,” Sarah called out.

 “Yes?”

 “Your mobile?”

 “Oh, yes, uh…” Clyde quickly found his phone on a chair. “See you later.”

 Sarah shook her head as the Doctor chuckled in amusement at the way the young man raced down the stairs. She said, “He’ll be calling Luke and Rani and Maria about this.”

 “Is that a bad thing?”

 Sarah smiled, “No.” She took him by the hand and led him over to the sofa. The Doctor sat, and pulled her down, swinging her legs to the side across his lap. He sighed as he wrapped his arm around her back.

 “Who was that?”

 “Clyde. One of my friends.”

 “And the other three you mentioned? Also friends?” 

 “Rani and Maria, yes. Luke is my son.”

 The Doctor drew back slightly. “Son?” he cleared his throat. “I… since we parted-“

 “Not really. There hasn’t been anyone else,” Sarah answered before the question came out. “I found Luke, and it only made sense for me to take him in.”

 The Doctor’s smile was uncertain. He didn’t know if he should be relieved or saddened by that fact.

 Sarah soothed his worry. She placed a hand on his chest and looked him in the eye. “There was only ever one man for me. Only one person for me.” She laid her head on his chest, tucked under his chin. Her eyes closed as she listened to the familiar double-heartbeat. “What about you?”

 “There was only ever one person for me, too.” The Timelord kissed the top of Sarah’s head.

 They sat in comfortable quiet, simply needing to feel each other’s presence now that the whirlwind of emotions had settled.

 The Doctor noticed a certain item sitting on a shelf. “You still have that?”

 Sarah opened her eyes and followed the direction of the Doctor’s gaze to the plush owl. She grinned. “Of course I do. K9, too. Though I sent him off with Luke to Oxford.”

 “So you did manage to get him. I had to leave mine with Romana in E-Space…” The Doctor let out a long breath. “A rather poor substitute for me, but…”

 “He’s been lovely to have. Thank you.”

 “I made him for you. It was the only thing I could think of to show that I hadn’t forgotten you… Someone to help you and protect you.”

 Sarah nodded, tears threatening to fall again. “He’s been very good at that.” She cleared her throat and sat up to look at the man. “I did always wonder why you left him with my Aunt Lavinia, instead of dropping him off at my place. He said you left him there in ’78, and I didn’t get him until ’81.”

 “I… I couldn’t risk direct contact with you. As much as I wanted to see you again, I knew that you’d want to come with me, or I’d want to stay with you. I couldn’t put you in the danger that hunted me, or tempt that danger into hurting you.”

 “Sounds serious.”

 “It was,” the Doctor nodded. “I had to install a randomizer into the console to try to throw the Black Guardian off our trail. But before I did, I built K9 and left him on your aunt’s doorstep.” He took Sarah’s hand and squeezed it. “I didn’t know if I would ever see you again, so I had to let you know somehow that… that I…” His blue eyes shone intensely. “I love you, Sarah.”

 How long had Sarah been longing to hear those words from that voice again? So long that she had given up hope of the possibility. She couldn’t stop the tears as she threw her arms around him and buried her face into his neck. “I love you, Doctor.” She muttered, “I love you” over and over into the skin, like she was making up for lost time in being able to say it.

 The Doctor kissed Sarah’s temple and buried his nose in her hair. “If you ever doubted I did, I deeply apologize.”

 They held onto each other until a few minutes after Sarah’s tears had dried, then she looked up to the Timelord. She bit her lip, wondering if she should even tempt fate, but something bothered her. She couldn’t help the fear that this would be taken from her. “Not that I want to question this, not after so long… but how are you here? This you, I mean?”

 “Because you’ve met future versions of me?”

 Sarah nodded. “Surely they would’ve remembered.”

 The Doctor smoothly went to his feet and pulled Sarah up with him. “I don’t know exactly, but… Let me show you something.” He took her hand and led her to the half-open door of the Tardis.

 Sarah stopped, tugging on the Doctor’s hand. When he turned to her, she asked, “You’re not going to whisk me off somewhere, are you?” She half-hoped he would say yes.

 “Only if you ask me to,” the Doctor answered. “I only want to show you something.”

 Sarah accepted that answer, because really, it wouldn’t do to suddenly disappear and come back who knows when.

 On the way, the Doctor saw some bit of alien technology and picked it up. “A Therodran transmitter? How’d you get this?”

 Trust him to get distracted when eager to show her something important. Sarah smiled in affection and took it from him to put back on the table. “I’ve gathered a lot of things a Human probably shouldn’t have in her attic.” She prompted, “The Tardis?”

 “Oh, yes.” Still, the Doctor glanced around for a moment before continuing across the room.

 When they stepped into the ship, Sarah let out a breath, the same familiar white room with the console in the center. Then she remembered it wasn’t like this when she had left. “Went back to the white, then?”

 “What? Oh… yes, not long after we…” the Doctor cleared his throat. “I remember falling, and pain… Then I woke up in my bedroom in the Tardis. When I came out here…” He led Sarah to the coordinates readout on the console. “These were locked in the system, and…” he pointed to a piece of paper taped next to it.

 Sarah swallowed and read, “’Sarah. For the rest of your lives. You both deserve it.’”

 “I thought the message was quite clear,” the Doctor nodded.

 “I… I think I might know who did this.”

 The Doctor raised his brow. “One of my future selves?”

 “However he did it…” Sarah pulled him in for a deep kiss. They separated at the sound of soft and romantic instrumental music drifting in from outside the open Tardis door. Sarah went to see what it was, but the Doctor pulled her back. Wordlessly, they interlaced fingers and placed hands on waists and slipped into a dance.

 She remembered his oddly graceful movement, and he remembered hers. It was as though the time apart didn’t matter. They still knew how the other moved, how the other felt, how the other… simply was.

 As they sensed the song coming to an end, the Doctor spun Sarah around and held her close, her back to his front, his hands splayed over her abdomen. She closed her eyes as he kissed the top of her head.

 They stayed like that a moment more, Sarah relishing the hum and air of the Tardis as she had known it, the feel of his breath on her cheek, the strength of his hands holding her close…

 “Now we can see what was making the music,” the Doctor said, one hand sliding off Sarah and the other moving to her hand. They couldn’t let go of each other, not now.

 “Good afternoon, Sarah Jane,” greeted Mr Smith. His screen displayed the audio file for the song that had finished. “Doctor,” he added. “The Tardis requested that I provide some music.”

 Sarah chuckled. “Oh, we don’t want to be encouraging them to talk to each other.”

 “Going to introduce me?” the Doctor prompted.

 “Right… Doctor, this is Mr Smith. He’s a Xylok.”

 “I haven’t met a Xylok before. How do you do?” the Timelord beamed.

 “Very well, thank you.”

 “He helps me with my work,” Sarah explained. “You have your Tardis. I have Mr Smith.”

 “Interesting choice of name,” the Doctor mused.

 “Don’t worry. His first name isn’t John.”

 “I do not have a first name,” Mr Smith responded.

 Sarah cleared her throat. “Yes, well, the choice of music was lovely, thank you. Now… could we have privacy again?”

 “As you wish, Sarah Jane,” Mr Smith replied before going back into the wall.

 Sarah led the Doctor back to the sofa, and prompted him to take off the oversized maroon coat and scarf.

 “When you say work…” The man’s gaze swept over the recognizably alien objects around the attic.

 “I am still a journalist. One of the top three in the country, actually. But, sometimes the world needs to be defended, and I do that.”

 “Doing what we always did… with Mr Smith and K9?”

 Sarah nodded. “And with those friends mentioned earlier.”

 The Doctor smiled. “Good.” He sat on the sofa, then pulled Sarah down as he stretched out along it on his back, his head propped up on the pillow and armrest. She fell on top of him, and it took a little resettling for her to lie comfortably on top of him, her head under his chin. He then spread his coat out over them as a blanket.

 One of Sarah’s hands lazily stroked up and down the Doctor’s side, and she determined that he was thinner than last she had seen him. He had already been quite lean, his height emphasizing it. She wondered just how long it had been with him, though she didn’t ask, knowing he either didn’t know exactly, or would say it didn’t matter.

 Sarah raised her head as the Doctor looked down to her, and she noticed a pair of faded scars close together, one going down from the corner of his mouth, and the other up from his lip. She raised her hand to gingerly touch them with a finger. She didn’t ask what they were from, and he didn’t say. There would be time for stories of adventures later.

 Sarah gently placed a kiss over the scars and laid back down. The Doctor’s hand slipped under the coat to rub her back. She felt his hearts under her ear, and he felt the rise and fall of her breaths.

 In that state of calm bliss, they lost track of time. That is, until they heard the front door open downstairs, and a voice call out, “Mum?”

 Sarah sat up, the Doctor following her lead, and called back, “Attic, Luke.” While she wanted the Doctor to herself for a little longer, she was happy to get to introduce him to her son.

Running footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Luke almost skid to a stop when he entered the attic. He froze at the sight of Sarah and the Doctor sitting on the couch, holding hands. He let out a breath. “It is you… Mum showed us some old Unit photos a while ago, and pointed you out.”

 “Yes, and Clyde hasn’t stopped teasing me about the fashion back then,” Sarah grinned.

“Hello, Luke.” The Doctor extended his arm to the young man. When Luke took his hand, the Timelord enthusiastically shook it. “Sarah tells me you’re studying at Oxford.”

 Luke was caught off-guard by the unexpected prompt, and stammered, “Y-yes. Science… physics and chemistry. That sort of thing.”

 “Good lad.” The Doctor let go of Luke’s hand as another voice sounded from the stairs, “Do not leave me behind, Master Luke.”

 “K9!” The Doctor beamed as the robotic dog hovered into the room and set himself down on the floor to roll over to the group.

 “Master! This unit is pleased to see you.”

 “How have you been?” The Doctor petted the top of the dog’s head.

 “Well, Master.”

 “You and Sarah been taking care of each other?”

 “Most definitely.”

 “Good, so very good.” The Doctor leaned back against the couch cushions to take the pair in.

 Luke awkwardly shuffled his feet, then his protectiveness of his mother rose and he suddenly asked, “You’re not going to leave Mum again, are you?” He quickly apologized, “Sorry, I didn’t mean…” Luke shook his head. “It is nice to meet you, really.”

Sarah rose to her feet. “Come on, let’s have a nice cup of tea and chat.”

 Following her lead, they all went downstairs. Sarah told them to settle in the living room.

 The Doctor set K9 down and started looking him over. “Hm… that looks new…”

 Luke followed Sarah into the kitchen. “I didn’t mean to offend him or you,” he quietly said, getting water in the kettle.

 Sarah smiled in assurance. “No, it’s alright.” She patted his cheek. “You’re just looking out for me.” Once Luke placed the kettle on the stove, she encouraged, “Go on, I can handle the rest.”

 “Are you sure? Because I could-“

 Sarah gestured with her head to the living room. “Get to know him,” she encouraged.

 “Okay.” Luke kissed her cheek before going back to the Doctor and K9.

 Sarah smiled to herself as the tones of their conversation reached her ears. She understood Luke’s earlier outburst, and was glad he was still happy to meet her Doctor.

 A few minutes later, she joined them with a tray of tea and biscuits, and she joined in the talking and laughter. It all felt so natural and right.

 ********

 That night, Sarah and the Doctor lay together in her bed. She in a tanktop and pajama bottoms, he in flannel trousers he had gone back into the Tardis to find.

 Sarah’s fingers traced random patterns on the cool skin of the Timelord’s bare chest. Her head lay on his shoulder. His arm was looped around her back and the hand rested on her side.

 She had found a few other little scars that hadn’t been on him before, and he discovered a few of hers. Still, they didn’t elaborate on them. This wasn’t the time to speak of injuries and near-deaths.

 A thought entered Sarah’s mind, one that brought up a memory of pain the last time she had dared to think it, but also brought a hope. Her hand on the Doctor’s chest flattened as she pushed herself up to see his face in the dim light.

 “What is it?” the Timelord asked.

 “I wonder… if this is it? All those people we’ve saved, all those lives we’ve put before our own, all the time apart…”

 “Our… reward?”

 Sarah nodded.

 “’For the rest of your lives. You both deserve it,’” the Doctor remembered the note. “Well, whatever this is… I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

 “Neither could I.”

 They both smiled, and moved in for a long, soft kiss. One less frantic than the others before when they had come into her room, but still just as passionate.

 “I love you,” they whispered in unison and kissed again.

 Sarah pulled the blanket up over them as they broke apart and resettled. She laid her head on the Timelord’s chest, relishing in the steady heartsbeat, and sent a silent thank you to the Doctor who had done this for them.

 “I love you…” they both said again, softly, as they drifted into sleep together.


End file.
